Building a world together where children can thrive

Our societies have the responsibility to help children thrive. Yet millions of children around the world are sexually abused, and the effects are often devastating and long-lasting. Thankfully, we are seeing new openings for change. Survivors and advocates are breaking through the culture of silence to call for justice. Governments and private institutions have begun to accept that they can and should do more. And researchers and practitioners are showing that prevention is possible.

We believe that children everywhere deserve a positive future: the chance to grow and learn in safety – free from the threat of sexual abuse.

We have seen growing evidence that preventing the sexual abuse of children is possible. For example, in Nairobi, Kenya, rapes have dropped by more than 50% in communities where girls and boys take part in a powerful training programme called No Means No. In Northern Uganda, through REAL Fathers Initiative, after being mentored by trained peers, young fathers were half as likely to use physical, psychological and verbal violence with their wives and children.

Together with our partners – along with policy-makers, global institutions, business and the public – we can build societies where children are never sexually abused. To this end, we work through two sub-programmes to: (1) promote, advance and scale up solutions to reduce child sexual abuse; and (2) engage with and hold global institutions accountable to prevent abuse and to end impunity for child sexual abuse.

You can read more about our strategy below.

Our latest stories

Oak would like to announce that Delia Pop is the newly appointed director of Tanya’s Dream Fund. This initiative was created by Oak in honour of Tanya Kovacheva, a former Programme Officer for Oak’s children’s programme, who passed away unexpectedly in 2017.

“Breaking the silence is on all of us, not just on survivors. We need to break the silence of institutions, governments, of entire societies and communities that allow sexual violence to happen and who remain silent. We must demand action now. What is happening is unacceptable.” These were some of the words spoken by Daniela Ligiero, CEO of Together for Girls, at the recently-held Women Deliver conference in Vancouver, Canada.

Our strategy

The Prevent Child Sexual Abuse team launched this five-year strategy in December 2018. The strategy includes two sub-programmes: Solutions & Advancing Action and Accountability & Ending Impunity. It also includes limited support for strategic opportunities and initiatives. We plan to move to fewer, larger grants and to provide more core support. We have also made a commitment to take more risks, and welcome bold ideas that can unleash energy, much needed attention and hope.

Sub-programme 1: solutions & advancing action

Target 2: Scale interventions that accelerate the reduction of child sexual abuse and exploitation by:
a) engaging men and boys and promoting positive gender norms in early childhood; and
b) building healthy relationships amongst young adolescents.

Target 3: Shine the spotlight on boys as victims and survivors of child sexual abuse.

Sub-programme 2: accountability & ending impunity

We have three targets:

Target 1: Implement new child rights standards in international financial and sporting institutions.

Target 2: Shift the paradigm to see young athletes as young people first.

Strategic opportunities

We also support cross-cutting efforts beyond our sub-programme focus. This includes support for networks that strengthen the movement to end child sexual abuse, survivor groups and other catalytic or time-bound initiatives that advance our mission.

Where we fund

We take a global approach and fund where we can have the greatest impact and in specific geographies that build on our experience and advance our vision. In the Solutions and Advancing Action sub-programme we will prioritise East and South Africa and Europe to build on our past investments. In the Accountability and Ending Impunity sub-programme we will take a more global approach and will also include funding in the USA to change the way child athletes are seen.

Our learnings

Our mission

Oak Foundation commits its resources to address issues of global, social and environmental concern, particularly those that have a major impact on the lives of the disadvantaged. With offices in Europe, India and North America, we make grants to organisations in approximately 40 countries worldwide.